


Golden Joinery

by BarPurple



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Chipped Cup, F/M, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Post Season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 09:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7310038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She cried when she found it in pieces in the shop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden Joinery

Belle found it in the pawnshop not long after their return from the Land of Untold Stories. Rumple had woken her from the sleeping curse and saved Storybrooke along the way, but there was still a tension between them. They’d not had an easy relationship, or a perfect marriage, but they were both trying their best to make things work for their unborn child. 

Finding the broken pieces of their chipped cup in a blue velvet bag had made her cry. He’d not repaired it when it was last broken. That act alone spoke of his doubts about their relationship. This little cup represented their whole time together, it was how she’d first come to know the man behind the beast, it had brought her back to herself after Lacey, it had survived countless transitions between realms, it had been a part of their wedding vows, it had always stood for something worth fighting for, but Rumple had left it in pieces, tucked away on a high shelf in this shop of broken dreams and dashed hopes. She almost walked across the town line right then, but the child within her gave a kick and she suddenly had an idea.

Rumple had always been the one to repair this cup. It was a simple thing for him to wave his hand and make it whole, less its chip. It was about time she fixed their symbol. It was an abstract idea to prove to him how much she wanted them to have their happy ending together, but symbols were a potent force and this was the symbol of their True Love more than their wedding rings could ever hope to be.

She knew instantly how this needed to be done. It took a little research on the library’s slow computer and the sacrifice of a diner plate to practise on, but a week later the chipped cup was back in one piece. Belle was nervous as she followed Rumple into the shop that morning. She’d left the cup on the counter the night before in a place where he couldn’t fail to see it.

She knew the moment he saw it, his step faltered and he drew in a sharp breath. He staggered to the counter, his hand stopping just shy of touching the cup, his long fingers ghosting over the seams of gold that held the broken pieces together. He twisted his head to look at her.

“Belle?”

She moved closer, her fingers toying nervously with a button on her coat.

“The technique is called Kintsugi. It’s from a land in this realm called Japan. Broken pottery is repaired with gold to high light the damage rather than hide it. The people of that land hold the belief that the damage is an important part of an object’s story. Pieces repaired in this way are considered more precious because of the damage, because repaired like this their story can continue.”

She stopped and searched his face for something, anything. Rumple was gazing at her in wonder, but she couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not.

“You did this?”

Belle nodded; “With some of the gold you’ve spun since we’ve been back.”

He’d spun every night since they’d returned. He slept less now than he had in the Dark Castle. Rumple reached out with shaking hands and delicately lifted the cup from the counter. He cradled it in his hands, his thumb tracing the edge of the chip in the rim.

“You didn’t fill the chip?”

“No, I didn’t want to change that bit. You always do that,” She pointed at his slowly moving thumb, “when you hold it. I didn’t want to change the texture.”

Rumple licked his lips and carefully put the cup back on the counter. He was half hiding behind his hair as he turned to face her properly.

“Belle, does this mean what I think it means?”

This was the moment where she found out what her future would contain. Belle took a deep breath.

“It means that all of our broken bits are part of our story, they’re part of what makes us us. I’m not ready to throw us away just because we got a little broken again. There’s more of our story and I know it can be beautiful.”

There were tears in his whiskey brown eyes as he closed the gap between them, one hand going to her baby bump the other to her cheek.

“I love you Belle.”

She covered his hand on their growing child with one of her own and caught his face in the other. Her voice choked with emotion as she said;

“Together in everything. The future for the three of us.”


End file.
